Knowledge and practices of nurses regarding nosocomial infection control measures in private hospitals in Sana’a City, Yemen

Abstract

In the Yemeni healthcare setting, basic infection control measures are necessary to reduce the rates of hospital-associated infections. A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted from April to May 2016. A non-probability sample of 100 nurses working in the private hospitals located in the capital city of Yemen was selected as study participants. A 45-item questionnaire was used to assess knowledge and practices regarding nosocomial infection control measures among the study subjects. The collected data were analyzed by SPSS (version 22.0). The highest percentage of nurses were males (61.2%) and aging between 25 and above (71.8%) and had 3 years nursing diploma (60%), less than 5 years of employment in the hospitals (56.5%), relatively high training course about nosocomial infections (NIs) (64.7%), and working experience in infection control (78.8%). Most of the nurses (87%) had a fair level of knowledge, while only 4% of them had a good level of knowledge of preventive measures of nosocomial infections. The results also revealed that the majority of the nurses (71%) had fair practices about nosocomial infections whereas 26% of them had good practices and only 3% of them had poor practices. The gaps in knowledge and practices regarding NI control measures indicate the need to establish a related health care policy regarding NIs and implement a regular training program to upgrade and refresh the nurses’ knowledge and practices regarding NI control measures.